Ten amazing months. Ten international designers in the lecture theatre, one every month. Ten unique chances for learning by doing, elbow-to-elbow with the best. The Raffles Milano Masters: someone has come up with them at last.

10 monthsEnglish Marc Sadler

full-time

Via felice casati 16, Milano Italy

Duration

10 months

Credits

60

Start date

February

Language

English

Master course Raffles Milano

Product design

Building, breaking, rebuilding

Duration

10 months

Credits

60

Start date

February

Language

English

Course leader

Ten amazing months. Ten international designers in the lecture theatre, one every month. Ten unique chances for learning by doing, elbow-to-elbow with the best. The Raffles Milano Masters: someone has come up with them at last.

Why?

Why?

Why do some design projects that seem to have ticked all the right boxes simply fail to pass the test of the market? Does such a thing as a recipe for success even exist? The answer is no: there are no fool-proof recipes. What does exist is talent, energy and a serious approach to designing, an understanding of the complexity of the world and the ability to adapt models to suit it. Then there are tenaciousness, analysis and learning: these are the things that do exist.

Course leader

Course leader

Marc Sadler

Industrial designer

A Frenchman born in Austria, Marc Sadler has lived and worked as a designer in France, the United States, Asia and Italy. One of the first graduates in Esthétique industrielle at the ENSAD in Paris, with a thesis in plastic materials, he was a pioneer of experimenting with materials and of cross-fertilisations between technologies, both issues that have become distinctive features of his work. At the beginning of the seventies, he designed the first ski boot made of 100% recyclable thermoplastic material, which was produced on an industrial scale by the Italian firm Caber (which later became Lotto). By virtue of his eclectic nature, he is now a consultant with firms operating in all areas of industry. The important awards and acknowledgements he has won over the years include four ADI Compasso d’Oro awards (1994, 2001, 2008 and 2014). The back protector he designed for Dainese features in the permanent collection at the MoMA in New York, while his Mite lamp for Foscarini can be seen in the design collection at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. He is so passionate about painting and drawing that he considers them to be his most authentic interests.

Professional opportunities

Professional opportunities

This Masters is designed to provide students with a methodological toolkit and skills that will enable them to design products effectively in a very broad range of industrial sectors.

Who should attend

Who should attend

The course targets graduates in design and architecture, as well as young designers, architects and practitioners who are curious and want to broaden their aesthetic horizons. They are destined to be the movers and shakers of creative designing in future, the ones who write the agenda for design in firms, in architecture and design offices, in research groups, in major global organisations and also in professional contexts and fields that we cannot even imagine today.

Curriculum

Curriculum

Students attending this course get a chance to experiment with different approaches to designing, as a function of different types of clients and stakeholders. Research-based design is extremely pro-active and favours unusual formal or constructive solutions. When design focuses on execution, the designer becomes a businessman capable of offering solutions that integrate into consolidated production practices, but also of standing out for his personality. Ground-breaking design, lastly, leaves more space for pure creativity, as long as the bases of good research and good execution are also there.

Topics

Topics

Development of new materials and surfaces.

Development of new aesthetics and graphics.

New products and new models of distribution.

New product frontiers: nomad products.

New production frontiers: the metamorphosis of 3D printing.

Endorsements

Endorsements

For the quality and effectiveness of its didactic model, this Masters course has been endorsed by:

ADI

Associazione per il Disegno Industriale

Design lecturers

Design lecturers

Learning directly from practitioners is the best way to pick up the most advanced visions and methods at source. Unlike conventional Masters, the Raffles Milano Masters bring hands-on knowledge direct into the lecture theatre, with ten market leader design offices occupying the lectern in the course of the ten months.
Each designer spends a month with the students. 8 four-week months and 2 three-week months.
Each week you will have a 6 hour day and an 8 hour day lesson with the designer.
At the end of the month, the student receives an evaluation on the developed project.
Some designer can be replaced during the Master, with other top-level designer, maintaining the international Faculty’s standards.

Project

Yossef Schvetz

Designer

After working in research and development in the aeronautics industry, Yossef Schvetz studied Industrial Design at the Holon School of Design in Israel. This led him to start working as a designer and theatre designer and in 1996 he was one of the co-founders of Nekuda DM, one of the leading industrial design offices in Tel Aviv. At the same time he also lectured at the Vital & Shenkar Schools of Design, conducting his courses with an experimental methodology of user-centred ethnographic research. In 2000, he moved to Italy to attend a Masters course, which he then followed up with a long career with Flex (previously Flextronics), the world’s largest company operating in the field of services for electronic manufacturing, where he worked with such clients as Nokia, Ericsson, HP and Johnson & Johnson. In 2004, he was one of the founders of the Milan-based studio Frog Design. In 2010, he went back to Flex as Design Manager, expanding the division’s scope of activities to encompass holistic user experience and related field research, as well as innovation in the area of wearable technologies.

Project

Makio Hasuike

Designer

Born in Tokyo in 1938, Makio Hasuike graduated in Industrial Design from the Tokyo University of the Arts in 1962, then spent one year gaining professional experience at home in Japan before moving to Italy. In 1968, he founded his own industrial design office in Milan, one of the first in Italy. In 1982, he embarked on the experimental MH Way project, with which he has launched a series of innovative products onto the market. In the course of some forty years, he has developed design projects and partnered with great Italian and foreign firms, contributing to their success with design solutions that stand out for their innovative aesthetics and contents. His designs have won several prestigious awards and acknowledgements and continue to be shown in exhibitions and museums, including the MoMA in New York. In 2016, he received the ADI Compasso d’Oro Career Award. He is a member of the Founding Committee of the Masters in Strategic Design at Milan Polytechnic.

Project

Setsu & Shinobu Ito

Designers

Established in 1997 by Setsu and Shinobu Ito, the Studio Ito works in the areas of architectural, interior, space, product, industrial and packaging design. One of the characteristics of this office is its ability to partner with international architects and designers who specialise in specific areas. Setsu Ito graduated from the University of Tsukuba and learned the profession working with Alessandro Mendini and Angelo Mangiarotti at Alchimia. Shinobu Ito graduated from the Tama Art University in Tokyo and has worked with CBS Sony. The office has won numerous international design awards, including the ADI Compasso d’Oro Award in 2011 and the IF Design Award in 2015. Many of the designs created by the office now feature in the most prestigious permanent collections, including the Triennale Design Museum in Milan and the Neue Sammlung International Design Museum in Munich Monaco. The two architects have held courses and workshops at the Polytechnic in Milan, the IUAV University in Venice, and the University of Tsukuba.

Project

Giulio Vinaccia

Designer

Born in Caracas in 1957 to Italian parents, Giulio Vinaccia moved to Italy in 1985 and spent the years from 1997 to 2012 working with his brother Valerio in the area of industrial design, while also starting to take an interest in social design in his native Colombia in 1993. From 1996 to 2002, he worked with SEBRAE, the Brazilian Support Service for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, developing a dozen projects of design for craftsmanship in several communities of Brazil. In 2004, the Spanish government commissioned him to carry out a project to study the iconography of the Camino de Santiago. He subsequently worked to flank communities in critical condition in Sweden, Canada, Afghanistan and Egypt. Since 2009, he has been working with the development programmes at the UNIDO – United Nations Industrial Development Organisation – in China, Haiti and the five Caribbean states, Pakistan, Madagascar and seven southern Mediterranean countries. In 2015, he won the World Green Design Contribution Award and in 2016, together with UNIDO, the ADI Compasso d’Oro Award, the first one every presented in the award’s history to the category of social design.

Project

Jozeph Forakis

Designer

Jozeph Forakis is the creator of some of the most iconic product designs of the last twenty years, such as the Havana lamp for Foscarini, now in the permanent collection at the MoMA in New York, the Mouseman Pro mouse, the first to adopt a vertical ergonomic concept and a thumb button, and the Swatch Irony Scuba 200 watch. Forakis is recognised for his innovative use of materials and his interest in interactive technologies. Born to his calling, his designs reflect his family background in the arts and theatre, in particular his experience as a theatre stage and lighting designer in New York. From 1999 to 2002, he was Design Director with Motorola, leading the team that designed the V 70 mobile telephone. The Joseph Forakis studio has offices in Milan and New York and works for such international clients as Epson, Fujitsu, Haier, Kikkerland, Normann Copenhagen, LG Electronics, Magis, Samsung, Swarovski, Tecno and Yamaha Motors. In 2004 ADI, the Italian Association for Industrial Design, dedicated a one-man show to him in Rome and New York, the first it had ever organised for an individual designer.

Project

Stefano Giovannoni

Designer

Stefano Giovannoni was born in La Spezia in 1954 and graduated from the Faculty of Architecture in Florence in 1978, then lectured and conducted research at university from 1979 to 1991. In 1984 and 1985, he worked with Ettore Sottsass and Alchimia-Mendini. He has lectured in Masters courses at the Domus Academy and the Università del Progetto/Design University of Reggio Emilia and served as a professor in industrial design at the Genoa University of Architecture. He now works as an industrial and interior designer and architect, specialising in plastic products. He has designed very successful products, including the Girotondo and Mami plastic products and the Alessi bathroom for Alessi and the Bombo series for Magis (in all 300 products). In 1991, he designed the Italian pavilion for the exhibition Capitales européennes du noveau design at the Pompidou Centre in Paris. In 2015, he won the prestigious Red Dot Design Award, the latest in a long series of awards, and teamed up with a Hong Kong investor to establish Qeeboo, his own brand for producing plastic furnishings at affordable prices. His design works have won him the “Design Plus” award at the 1994, 1996, 2003, 2005 and 2009 editions of Ambiente at the Frankfurt Fair, the “100% design” award in London in 1997, the “Forum Design Hannover” award in 1999, the “ISH” award in 2003, the Chicago Athenaeum “Good Design Award” in 2010 and the “New York Interior Design 2012 Award”.

Project

King & Miranda

Designers

Perry King
After studying industrial design in the UK, Perry King moved to Italy in 1964 to work as a consultant with Olivetti, where he subsequently became Image Design Co-ordinator. For Olivetti, he worked with Santiago Miranda to design dot matrix fonts, posters and books. In 1976, he and Miranda then established their own office King Miranda Associates. He has lectured at Milan Polytechnic, at the University of Arts and at the Royal College of Art in London. In 2000, he was named Royal Designer for Industry.
Santiago Miranda
Santiago Miranda studied at the Escuela de Artes Aplicadas y Oficios Artisticos in his native city of Seville before moving to Milan in 1971, where he worked as a consultant with Olivetti. Focusing on research and teaching, he has served as a member of the academic committees at the Pablo de Olavide University in Seville, as well as on many international juries. In 1989, he won the Spanish National Design Award and in 1995 the Andalusia Design Award.

Project

Alberto e Francesco Meda

Designers

Class of 1945, Alberto Meda graduated in mechanical engineering from Milan Polytechnic in 1969. Starting in 1973, he worked as Technical Director at Kartell, where he was responsible for developing the Labware and Furnishing Accessories Divisions. Since 1979, he has put his name to designs for Alfa Romeo Auto, Alias, Alessi, Arabia-Finland, Colombodesign, Th.Kohl, Luceplan, Kartell, Olivetti, Vitra, Tvs and Caimi Brevetti. He has been awarded wtih five ADI Compasso d’Oro Awards: for the Luceplan lamps Lola (1989), Metropoli(1994) and Mix (2008), the Teak tablefor Alias (2011) and the Flapsoundproofing panels for Caimi Brevetti (2016). In 1999, he won the Designer of the Year Award at the Paris Furniture Fair, while in 2000 his MedaChair for Vitra won him the German Federal Prize for Product Design. This was followed in 2005 by designation as an Honorary Royal Designer for Industry by the RSA in London, then in 2007 by the INDEX: Award for the Solar Bottle. In 1994, the New York MoMA added his chairs LightLight, Soft Light and Longframe 1 for Alias and his On-Off lamp for Luceplan to its Design Collection. He has taught at the Domus Academy, the Designlabor in Bremerhaven, Milan Polytechnic and the IUAV in Venice.

Francesco Meda

Francesco Meda was born in Milan in 1984 and graduated in Industrial Design in 2006. After completing his studies, he moved to London to work first with the Sebastian Bergne studio, then with the Ross Lovegrove office. Returning to Milan in 2008, he worked with his father Alberto Meda on projects for such clients as Alias, Vitra, Alessi, Kartell and Th.Kohl. In parallel with this, he developed his own independent career in art and design with the I Vassalletti limited edition, the Schoeni Art Gallery of Hong Kong, Henraux, Luce di Carrara and Riva 1920. His Orme Cinesi collection has been shown in the Lane Crawford stores in Hong Kong and was presented by the Schoeni Art Gallery at the Hong Kong Art Fair in 2012. In 2013, he co-designed Flap, a soundproofing panel produced by Caimi Brevetti. In the same year, he launched the production of his own designs for LED lamps, marble stools, tables, benches and 3D-printed jewellery. The Bridge lamp and the Layers series of 3D-printed jewellery pieces have been included in the collection of the Triennale Design Museum. With Flap, he shared with his father Alberto Meda the 2015 German Design Award and an ADI Compasso d’Oro Award in 2016.

Project

Francisco Gomez Paz

Designer

Francisco Gomez Paz was born in Argentina in 1975. After graduating in Industrial Design from the National University of Cordoba, he moved to Milan to take a Masters in Design. In 2004, he opened his own design office, which has involved him over the years in working with clients of the calibre of Artemide, Driade, Danese, Lensvelt, Luceplan, Olivetti and Sector. The approach adopted by Gomez Paz to designing is inspired by his curiosity, his knowledge of materials and technologies and a creative process with a decisively experimental, manual and heuristic flavour. Among the important international acknowledgements his work has won him are the Good Design Award and the Red Dot Award, both in 2010. In 2007, he and Alberto Meda were together the winners of the first edition of the Index Award for their Solar Bottle, which was then chosen by the MoMA in New York for its Study Collection in the following year. In 2011, he received the Prize of Prizes for Innovation from the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, for his Hope lamp for manufacturer Luceplan, as well as the ADI Compasso d’Oro Award. He is actively involved in research and teaching.

Project

Mindert De Koningh

Pattern-maker

Mindert De Koningh was born in Haarlem, in the Netherlands, in 1958 and started working as a model maker after completing his studies. Working side by side with young Dutch designers sharpened his interest in everything related to industrial design, in due course leading to his decision to move to Milan in 1990. Meanwhile, in 1997, he founded Zooi and opened a workshop in via Savona. He attended both on teaching activities and on the production of prototypes for the students reading for Masters degrees in Industrial Design and in Fashion Design, his path crossing with those of many of the great names that animated the Milan design and art scenes. His work can be classified under two major headings: prototyping and building models and mock-ups for designers, firms and agencies working in all sorts of different industrial sectors; and consultancy and technical support services for artists in executing their works.

Lecturers in method

Lecturers in method

There are some kinds of practical and theoretical knowledge and abilities that cannot be learned overnight, but need tailored tutoring. You never know when you will need them, but one thing is certain: you will.
For this reason, the students have 200 hours of lessons with the Method Lecturers which are spread over the 10 months of the Master.
Some lecturers can be replaced during the Master, maintaining the international Faculty’s standards.

Method

Giovanni Pelloso

Historian and critic

A journalist and photography critic who writes for the ViviMilanosupplement to the leading national daily newspaper Corriere della Sera, Giovanni Pelloso has worked on publishing projects with Mondadori Portfolio (he was the author of the piece dedicated to Mario De Biasi, Giorgio Lotti and Angelo Cozzi), with Hachette and with Canon Italia. A co-author of the Dizionario mondiale della fotografia (Rizzoli/Contrasto, 2002), he is a contributor to the monthly magazines NPhotography and Photo Professional and is editor in chief of the long-established magazine Il Fotografo. He has held workshops and seminars about photography at the Suor Orsola Benincasa University in Naples, the Istituto Italiano di Fotografia and the Contrasto agency. His research interests focus on the theory and practice of the sociology of consumption and of advertising. Working as a contract lecturer, he has been teaching and conducting research since 2005 at the Faculty of Communication Sciences and of Entertainment at the IULM University in Milan. He has been lecturing in photography at the LAO since 2013 and is an associate researcher at the Milan Civic Aquarium.

Gianluca Ferrauto

Coach

His professional career has given him the chance to gain experience in different fields: from communication to financing service. He has successfully developed a new business and at the same time renewed new commercial networks and company organizations. He has a peculiar attitude towards strategic thinking, from team work to talent honing and management. As a Coach Manager, he is truly a remarkable specialist of relationships for the development and acquisition of fundamental self-awareness. He has had numerous managerial roles in important Italian and international companies ranging from Commercial Manager in Mondadori Advertising to General Manager in Cemit Interactive Media, and he has been the General Manager in Condé Nast. After a few years in consulting, he came back to the company field as a Managing Director and as CEO of Cerved's Finservice Group.

Firms

Firms

In nearly thirty years of work, the Raffles Group has built up a substantial network of partners that participate in our three-year and Masters courses. These firms’ reputations and the quality of the relationships e have developed with them are a guarantee of a decidedly fertile meeting between education and business.

Monday Talks

Monday talk

Every Monday evening at 6.00 p.m., Raffles Milano invites its students to meet one of the major personalities who walk the stage of design, style and design culture. Hearing the stories and ideas that influence the market and drive our mindset – straight from the horse’s mouth – is an amazing opportunity that adds substance to our academic programmes. Here is the agenda of meetings for the coming year.

Admissions

Admissions

The maximum number of students that can enrol in each of our Masters courses is 20.

Candidates are selected in two phases. The first selection is a screening based on the documentation received from the student. If the application meets the requirements, an individual interview is arranged with the Course Leader.

The candidate’s evaluation takes in consideration all the elements that contribute to an individual’s profile into consideration: portfolio, previous studies, work experience, extracurricular activities and letters of presentation.

Documentation for admission:

curriculum vitae,

artistic and/or professional portfolio,

motivation letter,

list of previous studies,

documentation about courses and workshops attended,

passport or identity card for Italian or other EU member state students,

Masters

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